


It's a secret

by bouenkyou



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 03:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3312491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouenkyou/pseuds/bouenkyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone always wonders why Momoi and Aomine are still such good friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a secret

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [basketball poets society](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/tagged/challenge-no-109) challenge 109: Childhood Friends.  
> Contains mention of bullying.

People always ask Satsuki why she hangs out with a guy like Aomine. He’s self-centered and a total slob. He can’t even take care of himself and depends on her a lot, and on top of it, he makes fun of her and sometimes acts mean. Really, looking at it in any way, he’s taking advantage of her. 

Whenever people ask, she always does the same: she hums and then smiles, saying, “it’s a secret~”

Most people wouldn’t ask twice and let go the subject, but there are pushy ones that will usually get a dirty look from Aomine if he’s around, mostly because of all the badmouthing. But dirty looks and all, Aomine knows it’s just envy because he’s so great.

Smart ones are, well—more smart, so they look for a better source of information: Kuroko. If anyone would know the reason why Satsuki and Aomine would get along so well it would be the other person that hung out with them the most in middle school.

But Kuroko doesn’t tell from the get go, though, no. He’s a tough nut to crack. Still, the smart-pushy ones can usually win against him. He’s probably told this story only twice, though: once to Kise, because he kept being incredibly annoying about it to the point Kuroko had nightmares; and once to Midorima, who was so incredibly smooth about the whole exchange that Kuroko didn’t even notice he was telling the secret until he was done.

It all started in the last year of middle school. Well, that’s as far as Kuroko and Aomine knew, but it was perhaps older than that. Satsuki had been the basketball team’s manager for a while now and she hung out with the guys from the team a lot. Aomine stuck to her all the time because he was used to her, they’ve been together since childhood, and since Kuroko was friends with Aomine, the three of them were almost always together.

If Kuroko were to describe the Satsuki from then he would say she was like the sun: always cheerful, warm and energetic. She took her job as manager really seriously and always tried to help the team in any way she could. Additionally she did well in school and was well-liked by the teachers, she really made most of the team look admirable by their association with her.

But in the second term of their third year, something strange happened. Satsuki would show up to class with bruises on her legs or arms. When asked about it, she would brush the issue off and say how much of a klutz she was, but both Kuroko and Aomine thought otherwise.

At some point her stuff started going missing, too, and she once again would say she was just getting forgetful, but not bringing her homework or misplacing her school slippers was really out of character. Satsuki, who was known for taking care of others so well, wouldn’t be like this to herself. For months Satsuki kept coming up with reasons why these things happened, during those times Kuroko just nodded and Aomine hummed.

Kuroko realized something was truly wrong when one day, Satsuki didn’t show up to school. Aomine was in the foulest mood when he arrived to school alone, too, and when Kuroko asked, “Where’s Momoi-san?” Aomine huffed, “Like I care. It’s not like we’re joined at the hip,” he said, but Kuroko had never seen him so angry.

At lunch time, Aomine grudgingly admitted that he had gone to pick Satsuki up since she never showed up to his house. He figured she had overslept or something, since she’d gotten so crappy at everything lately. Kuroko listened quietly and was shocked at what Aomine said: Satsuki refused to go to school because she had a black eye and a split lip. Apparently Satsuki had fallen down in her room and the faceplant caused the injuries.

Aomine then said, “Don’t worry about Satsuki, Tetsu, I’ll fix this,” and he changed the conversation afterwards, talking about a basketball game that was shown on T.V. the previous night.

Satsuki came to school on the third day after her first absence and her face looked as pristine as ever. Her demeanor, however, had completely changed. Now she was always distracted and had this air of resignation about her; nothing further from her energetic personality. Aomine kept stealing glances at her and scowling. Kuroko mostly wondered if there was anything he could do to help them.

Then, in the afternoon, it happened. Satsuki didn’t show up to practice and Aomine was restless. He kept looking out the gym entrance and was having a hard time focusing on the ball. The coach told him to take a break and calm down and Aomine stormed out of the gym, shouting that he was going to find Satsuki. Kuroko made sure no one was paying attention to him and slipped out, following Aomine.

They found her at the school’s rooftop, surrounded by a bunch of girls. The girls kept yelling at her and one of them slapped Satsuki in the face. Satsuki slapped the girl back and she looked fierce, even if she was crying. Aomine ran to her and pulled her towards him, hiding her face on his jersey.

“What are you doing to Satsuki?” He growled and it was like a spell. Suddenly, all the girls looked surprised and a little embarrassed. They kept calling Aomine’s name under their breaths with shock, like they couldn’t believe he was there near them. One of the girls stepped forward, “She thinks she’s so great just because you’re her friend. She has to learn her place! We also want to be friends with Aomine-kun, but she’s always around you and because of her we can’t get close to you!”

At that moment, everything clicked in Aomine’s head. The bruises and cuts, the lost and misplaced objects, the change in Satsuki’s demeanor… it was all because Satsuki was being bullied. And from the look of things, it was all dumb jealousy towards her because of him. He had to take several deep breaths to not lose it. This was seriously the stupidest crap he had heard in years.

“You’re all idiots if you think beating up my friend will make me like you,” he said with disgust, walking towards the group or girls, “if you ever do anything like this to Satsuki again, I won’t be as nice as today. I don’t even want to see any of you go near her, am I making myself clear? Now scram!” All the girls bolted towards the rooftop door at the same time, leaving Aomine, Satsuki and Kuroko alone.

Satsuki cried for another ten minutes before her sniffles subsided completely. Kuroko handed her a handkerchief and she smiled a bit and nodded, accepting it. Aomine looked at her, her eyes red and puffy in contrast with the tiny smile, and said, “Yeah, Satsuki, smile. You’re ugly, but you look a lot better when you smile.”

“YOU’RE HORRIBLE!” she shouted as she puffed her cheeks and pouted. A small fist met Aomine’s chest with no force or ill intent at all, making Aomine burst in laughter from how weak her attack was.

Aomine held her fist in his hand, “Hey, don’t hide something like this from me ever again. You’re strong, I know that, but as your friend I don’t want to see you hurt,” he muttered lowly, so that only Satsuki would hear, “you always try to defend me, so let me protect you, too.”

“Thank you, Dai-chan,” she said; her smile brighter than Kuroko had ever seen it.

After that day, Satsuki went back to her usual cheerful and energetic self. She now seemed to see Aomine under a better light and used every chance to defend him even more than before when someone tried to speak ill of him, but if anyone asked about the reason why she would defend a jerk like him, she always said the same. That it was a secret.


End file.
